INTRODUCTION
Before going into design philosophy that guided the creation and balance of the Rocket Launcher, I should go over the general design philosophy for soldiers you can play.
Earthbreakers uses a class-based soldier design. Your primary and secondary weapon and certain special abilities are baked into the class you choose to play. Switching classes in the middle of the match is allowed by returning to your base HQ. Sometimes this can be useful, but keep in mind that mid-match upgrades you purchase to improve your class apply only to that class. This means that switching your class early in a match is wiser than switching later after you’ve purchased many upgrades.
Earthbreakers supports a strong rock-paper-scissors balancing model, but we are careful to make sure each class is always useful regardless of the tactical situation. If you like a particular soldier class, you can always be useful for your team throughout a match. An example of this philosophy of design can be seen with the Rocket Launcher.
ROCKET LAUNCHER SOLDIER
The Rocket Launcher is primarily an anti-vehicle weapon. The missile travels slowly enough that enemy soldiers can easily dodge an incoming rocket fired from range. The range of the Rocket Launcher is quite far, but not infinite. Eventually, the guidance system of the rocket fails and it falls to the ground doing damage to anything it hits. This is a useful feature since it allows you to use it like a long range artillery weapon, albeit with less than perfect accuracy at max range. The usefulness of the Rocket Launcher is not just for destroying vehicles. It remains useful in all kinds of tactical situations and match states.
In the early game, the enemy doesn’t have combat vehicles, but there is the enemy harvester that can be destroyed by the Rocket Launcher. This denies credits from the enemy team, but also grants credits to your entire team. Credits are used to enhance your base, build structures, and purchase upgrades. In addition, the Rocket Launcher does decent damage against structures so can also be used to press early attacks upon the enemy base and destroy defensive turrets.
In the mid to late game, when combat vehicles start to appear, the Rocket Launcher becomes the key weapon to defeating enemy vehicles before they reach your base. A heavy tank is fierce, but will tremble at the sight of a couple of Rocket Launcher soldiers standing in the way!
Sometimes you are far from the enemy base and there are no enemy vehicles in sight. What do you do against other enemy soldiers that are out to kill you? The Rocket Soldier is not helpless. A nearby rocket explosion briefly obscures vision and knocks the enemy soldier away through the air. This can give you the opportunity to retreat or, if you’re brave, press the attack. A direct hit from a rocket is deadly and the best way to achieve a direct hit on an enemy soldier is to fire at point blank range.
A BETTER ROCKET LAUNCHER SOLDIER
Earthbreakers replicates the tech and power advancement during battle like RTS games do. As such, there are plenty of opportunities to spend credits gathered by your team’s harvester to increase the power of your Rocket Launcher such as upgrading your damage potential and reload speed. But wait, that’s not all. You can also upgrade your soldier’s health, armor, stamina, and even buy consumables such as grenades and health regen packs. If you so choose, you can become the most powerful Rocket Launcher soldier on the battlefield!